Obama’s Bipartisan Stimulus Plan: Neither Stimulative Nor Bipartisan
And not only Republicans complained that the bill’s failure to focus on short term “stimulus” spending (including so-called “shovel ready” infrastructure projects). MSM outlets observed that this was a bill with plenty of superfluous, non-stimulative spending. And the Congressional Budget Office explained that much of the money won’t be spent for eighteen months and that less than 10% of the money will be spent on those infrastructure projects. Independent economists and business leaders expressed doubts that the stimulus package would do much to alleviate unemployment or spur growth. Even economists such as Martin Feldstein who supported the concept of a stimulus bill declared that this one needed to be “thoroughly revised” to meet its stated goals.
As Jim Manzi explained:
So, if this is a “normal” length recession, the spending bill will have the classic problem that fiscal stimulus does — namely, it comes too late to do much good, but right on time to help stoke inflation and mis-allocation of resources that are suddenly in high demand as the economy enters a recovery. And if this is a very long-lasting recession, more like a U.S. 1930s Depression or Japan 1990s “lost decade”, then the problem is so long-lasting that we’re not really debating a stimulus bill, we’re debating a near-permanent shift of control of resources to the government, which doesn’t exactly have a sterling track record of success. Only if this is a “Goldilocks-length” recession of more than 1-2 years, but less than a decade (which is a pretty hard beast to find in modern American history) would this temporal spending pattern turn out to be wise.
Republicans desire for significant tax rate cuts and for defense spending in lieu of some of the domestic grab-bag of traditional liberal spending items went unheeded. By the weekend Republicans and conservative commentators were out in full force warning that the bill in its current form was unacceptable. And while President Obama paid a courtesy visit to the Hill, he did not address their fundamental concerns. By the end of the process, with virtually every fiscal conservative organization opposing the bill, Republicans lacked any reason to vote for it. So they didn’t — not a single one.
In short, the Pelosi bill amounts to “a wish list for the left wing of the Democratic Party,” as Manzi explained. He listed the items costing $10B or more:
$20.0 billion to increase the maximum benefit under the Supplemental Nutrition Assurance Program (i.e., Food Stamps)
$18.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs
$20.4 billion for programs administered by the Department of health and Human Services
$20.0 billion to renovate elementary and secondary schools
$17.6 billion for Pell grants and other student financial assistance at post-secondary institutions
$29.1 billion for other elementary and secondary educational programs
$30.0 billion for highway construction
$13.1 billion for other transportation programs
$11.2 billion for housing assistance programs administered by HUD
$19.5 billion (minimum, could be higher, as per Title XIII) for education grants to states
$27.1 billion for increase unemployment benefits
$13.3 billion to increase health insurance for unemployed workers
$11.1 billion for “Other Unemployment Compensation”
$20.2 billion for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments to encourage providers to improve healthcare IT.
And all that “shovel ready” infrastructure did not really materialize. Larry Kudlow explains:
And the infrastructure bailout turns out to be vastly smaller than originally advertised. In the 1950s, Ike launched a $550 billion highway-building plan. Today’s stimulus package has $30 billion in highway-related projects, and perhaps another $40 billion way down the road for broadband and electric-grid-type developments.The public expected an infrastructure build-out that actually made some sense. That’s not what they’re getting.
The question remains why the new president, who had promised a truly bipartisan bill and warned about throwing money imprudently around, would have supported this approach. One theory is that he was run over by the Democratic steam train in the House and lacked the will or skill to pull Pelosi back. Another is that his high-minded rhetoric (seeking a more surgical approach to combating the recession and bipartisan support) was simply that — rhetoric.
Whatever the genesis of the bill, neither the contents or the final vote count was what many had anticipated just a week after President Obama swept into Washington. Its failure to attract any Republican support and the President’s refusal to incorporate (let alone take seriously) Republican policy ideas ends, for all intents and purposes, the bipartisan honeymoon. Republicans have found their voice and intend to stand on principle when the legislation offered is as lacking in merit as the stimulus bill.
In this case, the Republicans were in no mood to offer “cover” to the Democrats for a bad bill. They are not about to spare the Democrats from the responsibility for a bill which will expand the deficit (the total cost already surpasses $1 trillion with interest included) without substantially improving the short term economic outlook.
The bill now moves on to the Senate. President Obama had hoped to win eighty votes as a sign of his bipartisan support. That seems highly unlikely absent a complete reworking of the bill. As one advisor to a Senate Republican put it: “Obama is going to have to realize that tough choices come with governing, and right now his choice is to dispense with the bipartisan veneer he wants on this bill or start flexing muscles on Democrat leaders.”
The betting is that at the end of the legislative process we will have a bill that is not very stimulative nor bipartisan. But it will be extremely expensive. That, it seems, is what comes from “New Politics,” which come to think of it, isn’t new at all.
This Bill is ghastly. The transparency of the Democratic scamming is what is so alarming. They’re playing to their constituents and to them alone. I wish it were 50,000 government workers laid off rather than those in the private sector. The GOP must keep its name off of Obama’s ignorant policies and if we do I bet by 2010 we get 20 new seats.
Michele Obama tells the president what to do when he is at home.
Nancy Pelosi tells him what to do when he is at the office.
We now have two women in control of the most powerful man in the world,
and I didn’t vote for either.
God Help America.
So much for the bally-hooed “charm offensive”. Didn’t stimulate anyones package aterall!!
Boehner’s statement of “This was a bipartisan rejection of a partisan bill” would have more weight had a single Republican voted FOR it. When the vote splits so cleanly down party lines, calling it “bipartisan” is an exercise in absurdity.
The items listed in the article look like they are designed to fill the potholes left by the Bushies.
It also shows how PARTISAN everybody is: no goodies for the Reps and no votes for the Dems. The testosterone runs high in Congress . . . what a bunch of kids!
All the Stimulis packages in the world are not going to fix the economy. People are going to get the package and just hoard it. The only way to get the economy going again is to lower the prices on items. For instance a television that costs $2,000 should be lowered to $700. A sofa that is $3,500 should be lowered to $1,000. And so on and so forth. Or even lower. But Obama, like Bush, has hired all these rich folk to his administration who don’t know anything about the flat broke, unwilling to spend American people. They don’t even know how we think so how are they going to predict what we will do? Obama should have hired some poor people who understand what it is to be without.
All the Stimulus packages in the world are not going to fix the economy. People are going to get the package and just hoard it. The only way to get the economy going again is to lower the prices on items. For instance a television that costs $2,000 should be lowered to $700. A sofa that is $3,500 should be lowered to $1,000. And so on and so forth. Or even lower. But Obama, like Bush, has hired all these rich folk to his administration who don’t know anything about the flat broke, unwilling to spend American people. They don’t even know how we think so how are they going to predict what we will do? Obama should have hired some poor people who understand what it is to be without.
Ike, Boehner called it a bipartisan rejection because 11 democrats rejected it as well.
“$400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects.”
The Goracle has spoken. I wonder if any of this money will ‘carbon-capture’ Al’s own carbon footprint.
Michelle Malkin gave it the correct name – “Generational Theft”
“what they call a left wing wish list”? It is surely that, but it is really a trabzi/communist coup in the making. My Goodness did you not read those Soros articles linked yesterday on drudge? What a soulless Gulag they have planned for us.
What the qualifications? Why not call things by their real names?
If they want to stimulate the economy, they ought to take half of the entire package & give it back to the taxpayers. If they want to help those needing financial assistance, then- as Sowell put it- give those in need enough money all at once to no longer be considered poor. Let them do what they will with it; it would only be a fraction of what it costs to keep them in the lines year after year.
Thank G-d. Republicans actually grew a spine. NOTHING in this bill will stimulate the economy. It is pork, pure and simple. Time and again, every time the government intervenes in the market they create havoc. The only way out of a recession is to keep taxes low, keep markets free, limit red tape and regulation and let the free market grow jobs and the economy. The Democratic mantra is to grow the government and make as much of the country beholden to them, and maintain power, hence thier mantra- “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.”
This bill is a disaster. The amount of pork projects far out weight the benefits of the bill. The bill is suppose to be about job creation and infrastructure improvements, it will not do either, the pork in the bill is astronomical and caters to every liberal democratic supporting agency to the tune of millions.
I know the bill will pass without a single republican vote but it is nice to know that at least once they decided not to be the rug for the DNC. I know the senate doesn’t have that kind of courage and they do have McCain and Graham to ensure the DNC can and will call this a bipartisan bill.
Why is any of this a surprise? Obama’s history is left as is the democrats.
Those independents who thought Obama would govern from the center are now getting the big wake up call. Only a few will hear it.
A stimulus bill is not supposed to be a wishlist. This is Pelosi trying to socialize America in one easy step and – I want to give Obama the benefit of a doubt, here – the president doesn’t have the balls to rein her in.
Obama wants everyone to love him. That was ruinous for Clinton. It’s going to be ruinous for Obama, too. A president cannot be loved and still say “no” when “no” needs saying.
This presidency is a correction from Bush, but it is too extreme a correction. If that horror-show Mrs. Pelosi is not gotten under some control, we’re going to be unrecognizable as a nation before the 2012 elections.
Come on, President Obama – you said you’d be the president of ALL the people, not just the Democrats. Post-partisanship starts with YOU and giving lip service to it while not seriously meaning it just makes you an empty suit. I believe you can be better than that.
Ten Democrats also voted against this bill. That should be noted.
Sorry, mishu, but all Republicans and a handful of Democrats does not count as “bipartisan.”
Consider this hypothetical: Let’s say a Universal Healthcare bill passed. Every Democrat and a handful of Republicans voted for it.
Would you call that a “bipartisan” vote? Absolutely not.
The “bipartisan” language is pure marketing. And I’m not buying it. Just look at the vote totals. With the exception of the 11 dissenting Dems, it’s cleanly down party lines.
Calling it “bipartisan” doesn’t make it so.
Any bill that gives 5 billion to ACORN is, indeed, “shovel-ready”. Now all we have to do is keep Specter, Snowe, Collins, and Graham from “reaching across the aisle”. McCain, thank God, has already said he can’t vote for it.
Already a failure. Four more years. Disgusting.
Also…forgot to mention this, but the stimulus bill actually passed.
So when Boehner says, “This was a bipartisan rejection of a partisan bill,” he’s twice as wrong.
The vote wasn’t “bipartisan” and the bill wasn’t “rejected.” Like I said…marketing.
Vivo: Bush did not “leave any potholes”. Not literally, not figuratively. Prove it.
There certainly is not a national “Infrastructure Crisis”. That is just a confabulation foisted on us by the Democrats in order to reward unions, bail out their corrupt corelegionists at the local level and get kickbacks from construction firms. If there are any localized infrastructure issues at all it is becuase (mostly democrat) state and municipal governments redirect the assigned infrastructure monies to other things, usually hiring more government employed parasites in order to stay in office, and then come around rattling their cups for more. This is just what this is all about, and it is nothing but pure looting and banditry.
Look at all the Dem states, starting with California, and see where all this corrupt chicanery has lead. The Democrats are about to nationalize this immiseration of society. Yet again, vivo, you demonstrate that you have no idea of how government actually works in the real world, and yet you attack those who do. It is absolutely not the responsibility of the federal government or the taxpayer to bailout corrupt (usually Democrat) state and municipal governments. It was certainly not Bush’s responsibility.
That “pothole” nonsense is just a leftist slander and electioneering propaganda. Bush was a fine President. Just stop that nonsense. We have had enough if the baseless Marxism rhetoric, particularly out of immature and inexperienced useful idiots. Stop putting the blame on Bush for what is not even his responsibility.
This “stimulus package” is almost wholly a poltical flush fund created to reward the democrats buddies, enrich themselves and to begin putting in place a totalitarian socialist system. Example of the last goal: Local chapter of government funded organization like Acron and Organizing America. are just the Liberals’ version of commissars, the SA , the Red Guards and Bolivar Circles, and you would know that if your teachers and the Media had not filled you with a bunch of Marixst agitprop. You scoff now, but you will not be laughing when they come around to bully you, and you have to kowtow to them to get a job or even get services that in the new order only government provides (like health care). The tactic of using such organizations to undermine Liberty is a constant in Socialist movements once they get rolling.
This package is about stimulating the bank accounts of the Democrat insiders and ambitions of the tranzis and American Hard Left. It is not about simulating the economy whatsoever, and in any event it will not succeed at this task. We will just have the culprits of this fiasco further entrenched, the money blown, be even further in debt and still be facing down a depression or a prolonged recession. We will also have further corrupted a sizable portion of the electorate (which might be in the end the greatest damage.)
It will in fact make things worse. We may never get back the growth rates that we once had with all if this nonsense, and, Vivo, this will directly impact your future over the course of your entire life. It will substantially limit your options over time.
It does not benefit anyone but the inner circle of democrats and tranzis, a circle that the Democrat voter like you is completely excluded from. Vivo, you are always being played for a chump by the Left and the Democrats. Stop it before it is too late. The farthest thing they have is their hearts or minds is the welfare of this country or its citizens. Many of them are in the pocket of foreign dictators.
The GOP did not vote against this because they did not get any “goodies” but because they did not want to be a part of this immoral public looting. As always you invert things. The Democrats offer plenty of “goodies” to them, they turned them down because the whole thing stinks to the high heavens, and the public will figure ths out sooner or latter. If you knew anything about recent political history, you would know that in Clinton first term they also overblew a “crisis” and put out a stimulus plan — 16 billion worth — and sure enough, the GOP took back the house in the next election. (But then you only know what the Democrats tell you.) We have been through this Democrat hustle before many times, but not nearly at this level of hubris. It will end badly.
You need to stop making ignorant wisecracks and grow up. You are living in a fantasy world. Your teachers, your media are lying to you, and your peers are just going along with it. Learn to think for yourself.
Oh, and this goes to show how partisan you are, and how witless.
socialism and communism kind of meshed, melded swirled together. Ugly
You’ve all GOT to be kidding me!!! this much flack was not given to the REAL doozy our government passed just last year, have we all forgotten that THEY “borrowed” (i put that in quotations because WE have to pay it back, and I for sure didn’t see any of that money) 750 BILLION DOLLARS from the Fed. Res.????? AT LEAST Obama’s Stimulus plan is TRYING to help the people of America…The first 750, passed by BUSH and HIS administration did nothing of that sort. BUSHs’ bill bailed out big corporations that ran THEMSELVES into the ground, and how long do you all think it will be until we see anything come of that money?! probably never. SO I guess Obama is getting so much backlash about this b/c people aren’t used to an administration ACTUALLY TRYING to help them. I wonder how many people stood against roosevelt when he introduced the new deal? Get over the shock, people, a world leader is finally leading.
Codesensible – If it cost me specific amount of money to produce, and market a TV how can you justify requiring me to sell it for less than my cost. How am I able to make a profit that will keep my employees paid and let me research new and better products? Volume?
JBL: Those were some, but not all, if the “Blue Dogs” (Dems from conservative districts).
Pelosi had enough votes, so she gave them a dispensation to vote against it so they they could hold onto their seats. It is completely cynical and means little. Now we have this socialist mess and some fake Democrat conservatives still in office. There is just a few atoms of PR value in this, nothing more. It is all a fake show, like everything the Democrats foist on us while they impoverish and enslave us.
We now know what the half-life of “The past eight years of the failed policies of the Bush administration!!!” is. Eight days. Heh.
Dear Nancy and Hal, It’s all yours now. Would you like mustard with that?
One of the basic differences between liberals and conservatives is the fact that liberals feel the need to be taken care of. By their government or someone else. Liberals never leave the nest. If they did, they would be conservative, and responsible for themselves.
See why they want to spend so much of the taxpayers money at:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjM3Zjg5Zjc2NjE4NjQzMjEwY2Y2MmVhZGVhZDBjNDU=
One of those crossover Democrats,I believe,was a local(Memphis area)Rep named Travis Childers,who even voted for the GOP bill.Why he is a Democrat is beyond me….probably won’t be in 2010!
There is still the senate, and still the final version of the bill to vote on.
I wouldn’t get any hopes up about early posturing.
At least we all know for sure that the Democrats/Obama OWN this stimulus bill.
Quick!
Someone name one job above minimum wage Nancy has created in California?
Now The Terminator has had to stop all tax refunds to the 2 million over burdened taxpayers in Cal.
The Democrat Vision for Pelosi’s new America,
Take a look at California.
While I am glad that the bill did not pass, this is pretty significant:
“By the end of the process, with virtually every fiscal conservative organization opposing the bill, Republicans lacked any reason to vote for it. So they didn’t — not a single one.”
Strange how they found that reason now, but from 2001-2006 they had no problems greatly increasing the amount of government spending and borrowing against our future. And I am sure they would argue that the economy was doing great then!
This boondoggle, spending-like-a-drunken-Democratic congressman-bill, is a disgrace.
It’s Barack’s personal bridge to nowhere.
“Line-by-line, the B man said during the campaign “I’ll check for pork and cut it out of any bill that comes across my desk.”
Plus, none of the so called stimulus money will be felt till’ 2010 when the natural swing of the financial pendulum will have us out of the recession.
It’s a joke.
Under the cover of stimulus package language, the Democrats are jamming through every pork barrel project they’ve ever hoped for. They’re like kids in a toy store, buying everything they can get their dirty little hands on with somebody else’s money.
It’s a sham of a scam of a travesty.
It’s like a taxpayer, signing up for a hundred credit cards and maxing them out in a day. Irresponsible to the nth degree.
Dems.
They get below interest mortgage rates, say they didn’t realize it, but that’s not enough. Barack bought his house with a sweetheart land deal compliments of convicted criminal, Tony Rezko, but that wasn’t enough. They don’t have to pay social securty tax. But that’s not enough. They get dirt cheap health care that covers everything under the sun, but that’s not enough. They sell senate seats, but that’s not enough. They get everything from free haircuts to free cars and free gasoline, but that’s not enough. They put their family members in hundred K jobs (Michelle Obama’s hospital no-show hospital job), but that’s not enough. They go on free vacations and call them fact finding missions, but that’s not enough. I could go on and on.
Enough is enough. 2010 isn’t too soon to start voting the bums out.
I realize now that I said “I am glad that the bill did not pass”, which is an incredibly stupid comment, since it did pass. I was suppose to say that I did not wish for the bill to pass, but hey, since I can’t edit my comment, oh well…
The stock market is showing it’s approval, this morning. I think it’s whispering “We’re screwed for the next four years”.
Just another liberal shell tgame. You wonder, with the layoffs mounting, the unemployment rate climbing, what will the liberals do to hide their failures. OK, blame Bush. But didn’t Obama say he had some magic beans to fix the economy, if people would just vote for him? It’s getting clear, Obama is more jive talk than substance.
All the election of 2008 proved is it is real easy to make idiot voters out of ignorant people by promising them free stuff. Lucy and the football of politics. Comm8unists worldwide have been running the same scam for at least a 100 years,
@35 Rachel P: - Plus, none of the so called stimulus money will be felt till’ 2010 when the natural swing of the financial pendulum will have us out of the recession.
And, more notably, when the Dems will be using the “stimulus” to purchase votes as they push to extend their stranglehold on Congress.
@RV: Elsewhere Stephen Green discusses CO State Senator Trpohy’s lament over the struggle to get wi-fi where he works (which I’d assume is some State facility). Yet here we are posting comments on a system that we can neither preview nor edit. Kinda ironical.
That aside, the truth in your observation is a huge part of what got us where we are (see @2).
NO Jessica you are wrong, that bill late last year was pasted ostensibly to prop up key financial institutions, and the credit system, not for handouts to Democrat supporters, buy votes and indulge in graft. The two bills are not, in spirit at least, comparable at all, though the Democrats will subvert the remaining funds of that prior bailout to more political patronage.
Of course, since must of the culprits on Wall Street were connected Democrats anyway, there is a substantial bit of corruption and this may look like “handout” but since these are committed Democrat insiders and elites in the first place, it is more like the government wing of the Democrat Party elite aiding the business wing of the Democrat Party. Each to his needs and each to his abilities, as the Marxista say.
This might be what is confusing you.
The Democrats are just looting the taxpayer and trying wreck the system. They want an totalitarian socialist system with themselves as permanent oligarchs. To do this they have to dismantle capitalism and destroy the middle class. They are not different that the EU tranzis, the PCR oligarchs or the current hunta in the Kremlin.
This package is an instrument in this quest to immiserate and enslave us.
They are not trying to help the nation at allm just their traitorous selves.
You need to get an understanding of Democrat politics, not to mention economics,
You need to stop believing their lies.
You are being completely misled. That is your future that the Democrats are pilfering.
The real intent of the thing Nancy wrote is to grow government and the (even) deeper infusion of government into American life. It’s the mission of the Democrat party.
In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make “dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.”
Given the contents of that bill, spelled out here and at greater length in the (linked) WSJ article, already the grandiose promise of this President to effect, better, leaner, pork free government is headed for the trash heap of history.
Jessica- You must be a typical Democrat. Your emotions are showing through you overuse of the capitalization. Put down your emo and step away from the computer.
As to the former and latter “bailouts”. I wanted neither of them, but I would much rather bailout private/publicly held corporations than the entities in the latest bailout. The banks and auto industry actually employ people. The organizations of the 2nd bailout are mostly political PACs/donors.
Just how is it going to help our economy when we give $50 mil to the Endowment of the Arts? Oh wait, all those starving artists who can’t get money from selling the “art” they create, they will finally be flush with money!!
Another $650 mil for the conversion to digital? Just who benefits from this? Is the money going for advertising, because now Obama wants to delay the switch until later in the year? Or is it going to the TV stations and producers? Just how does this money stimulate the economy?
$1 bil for Amtrak? To do what? Lay more track? Refurbish their offices?
Clearly, you do not understand the basics of economics. The only way to stimulate an economy is give the buying public more money to use to buy. That in turn runs up demand, which in turn creates more production, which in turn creates more jobs, which in return creates more investing, which in turn creates more profit, which in turn creates more taxes (personal income, sales, and business at local, state, and federal levels) for the Government.
I am outraged at the egregious “stimulus” package; it appears to be a personal piggy bank for the Democrats. Talk about waste! All this bill accomplishes is increasing the burden on the tax payers for the benefit of the few –that don’t pay taxes. It is socialism at its finest and the destruction of America and our economic system. The Democrats have turned the US government into a FAT, BLOATED, ROTTING PIG!!!
How about all the congressmen cut salaries, give up your private jets and other entitlements, cut staff and try to give the appearance of fiscal responsibility. Now that would be “change” we could all believe in!
All that’s needed with this New Deal is a psychotic world leader who wants to eradicate the Jews. Then we really are repeating history.
oh we got that? Okay, then, prepare for an all out world war, culminating with someplace getting Nuked.
(I wish I were kidding)
“President” Pelosi speaks…and her lap-boy Obama dutifully swills the pork she slops onto his plate. He realizes it has taken barely one week to violate his campaign promise to cut out the pork, so he cowers in his office, awaiting Pelosi’s call to defend this “welfare stimulus” bill as “the most important piece of legislation in our time”….when all it is is payback to the welfare-devouring scum who form the core of his constituency. America may never recover from 4 years of this loser.
This does leave me wondering why O’s bothering to “reach out” to Republican congressmen with his little get-togethers when he has no intention of altering the Democrat agenda based on their feedback.
Maybe Pelosi’s got him p-whipped…
Hey, RV, no worries. It’s an easy mistake to make when you have John Boehner describing a party-line vote that passed as a “bipartisan rejection…”
It’s always a good policy with Boehner to “trust, but verify.”
ThinkingPerson definitely has a good point about the Democrats owning the stimulus. If it’s unsuccessful, they’ll have plenty of egg on their faces.
But if it works…even just a little bit…they’ll get all the credit too.
And here’s the rub: Every American, Republican or Democrat, better hope that it works.
If it fails, the Republicans can say “I told you so,” but all of us will be paying a huge price for their very small satisfaction.
Write to your Congressman.
No on the stimulus package. NO money for ACORN, NO money for clinics (Planned Parenthood). This is supposed to be about the economy, not social engineering. This bill should not be passed until it is focused on the economy and that issue alone. We cannot afford to play political games.
Bugs: Maybee its Barney Franks not Pelosi that’s doing the whipping. The One looks like he prefers bratwurst to doughnuts, if you know what I mean.
@47 ILikeIke: But if it works…even just a little bit…
And who, of course, will be handing out opinions on whether it “worked” or not?
Answer: the same Fifth Column responsible for lying about the economy for the last 5-7 years – the overwhelmingly Democrat-registered, anti-Bush, anti-Republican, anti-conservative entrenched media.
Going forward, any improvement in the economy will be attributed to “stimulus” and any lack thereof, or further decline, will be spun as due to ‘potholes left by the Bushies’. Anyone doubting this simply hasn’t been paying attention.
Jessica…. calm down! You won, remember? You should be celebrating but instead you seem angry. This pork bill is all yours fair & square, so take it, run with it, have fun with it, brag about it with your buddies. And please come here more often to tell us how much you enjoy it.
Goy…you nailed it. Obama can’t fail because success will be re-defined now.
I am proud of the Republicans!
Jessica – please give me one example of an economy being successfully “stimulated” by government spending. Once, anywhere, ever.
“We have tried spending money, we are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. . . . After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”"
– Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau in 1939
I havn’t beem this proud of the Republican Party since Sarah Palin was picked as the VP nominee. Obama’s so-called stimulus package is so full of Democrat party pork, I thinking about becoming a Democrat pig farmer to cash in.
Our FAT PIG guv will fall, this Pork Bill is 100% guaranteed to fail…it may get pass this bunch of DC crooks but the HopeyChangey folks will own it…the big question is when will the CW2 and WW3 coming? I foresee a lot of bureaucrats/polihacks swinging from the lamppost!
Correction: In the third word of my comment, change “beem” to “been”. I wouldn’t want to confuse some dumb liberal Democrats like Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi.
Jessica, you wrote people aren’t used to an administration ACTUALLY TRYING to help them.
You are either willfully or naturally ignorant of the truth.
@52. Retep: - Obama can’t fail because success will be re-defined now.
Exactly. Just as “qualified” was re-defined, as needed, to validate BHO’s candidacy while disparaging Palin’s. Just as the Bush Administration could never have succeeded in Iraq thanks to the endlessly shifting goalposts. BHO and his minions still talk of “ending” a war in Iraq that ended some time ago.
Fastest way to get money into the economy is to cut income taxes. Now those that don’t pay taxes, I don’t necessarily have a problem with giving them $500 or $1000 to spend. Put more money in PEOPLE’S hands every week and they will spend it. Tax rate changes could be in your paycheck next week.
But, alas, the gov’t is too stupid to do something smart. The list of items in the package is woefully bad. You build wealth and stimulate the economy with mining, manufacturing and agriculture not issuing more food stamps, pumping money into failing entities and giving housing assistance. If you get people spending it will create jobs and cure the resultant issues.
You just indentured your grandkids to the debt holders with this one.
@60. johnbrown:- Fastest way to get money into the economy is to cut income taxes.
This is precisely what gives the lie to BHO’s and the Dem’s claim that they want to stimulate the economy. They’re interested in no such thing.
In 1993, the Clintonistas pushed through The Largest Tax Increase in U.S. History, thereby delaying recovery from the early-’90s recession by years. In 1997 the Republican Congress finally passed a modest reduction in the cap. gains tax. That single act was most responsible for the economic “boom” Clinton takes credit for.
If the Dems’ were really interested in improving the economy they worked so hard to politicize and destroy for their own political gain, they would simply thumb through the record and do the same again. Hell, let BHO take credit for it! But watch – they won’t.
Handing out free money to people who have a history of producing nothing only guarantees that they will continue to….produce nothing, while being more comfortable and well-fed while doing so.
I lvoe listening to the financial brilliance I’m reading on this page today – J-Rube’s peeps held the congress from 1994-2006 – and the White House from 2000-a week ago – and they soent like drunken sialors – but that money MOSTLY went to the Pentagon and military contractors – to SAVE us from those really mean and dangerous iraqis – and not a word from the right wing. But now we have a bill that wanted to send $50 million to prop up the arts – which – you morons, creats a lot of jobs in those evil old cities you guys hate so much – a WHOLE $50 million – what is that – 10 days financing our great victory of purple thumbs? How petty! Well, this will work well for the Democrats – you folks act as if the moeny is being tossed into a bonfire – when in reality it will save many of our states from cutting back on services – you know, stuff the right hates – like schools and garbage collection – and the Republicans – already an incredibly shrinking brand, will look like obstinate school kids taking orderd from Rush Limbaugh…
Finally, the repubs seem to have grown a pair. Giving money to people who earn none is not going to help the economy. And don’t get me started on the arts-the government has no business whatsoever being involved in them.
All the republicans have to do, for 2 years, is vote no to every spending project and tax hike, while pushing tax cuts. That’s all. American will come to it’s senses. ANd if not, then nothing else would help anyway. I know they can’t stop any bill from being passed, but they can make very clear the difference between them and dems, and give people a reason to vote for them in 2 years.
I hope more Republicans and Democrats in the Senate will see the problems with this bill and clean it up.
For further related self-expression…….
House Version (@ OpenCongress) :: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, H.R.1
Senate Version (@ OpenCongress) :: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, S.1
Have seen it regularly rumored that some representatives, those who actually give a… hoot, check in to see the opinions being expressed.. It could happen..
One commenter’s offering that is supposed to show the bill’s dispersal if passed (not been able to view yet but hopefully others will be able to fully download) :: Stimulus Bill Treemap (@ propublica.org)
Have fun..
23. Mongoose:
“That “pothole” nonsense is just a leftist slander and electioneering propaganda. Bush was a fine President.”
The results of the Bush administration are showing now and they are pathetic. Congressmen and senators were elected to see for the welfare of the population. We deserve what we elected, for good or for bad. You think it’s bad, I rather see them off their ass and do something positive.
Let’s call it what it is: This is not a stimulus package, it is simply a crass political pay-off to various liberal constituancies for their support of Obama. If this travesty gets by the Senate and is signed into law, we will rue the day. If you think the stock market has been bad lately, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!!
The S.Package has already started working w/o spending a dime-gun sales.
Vivo: you are completely ducking the questiona, and you know it!
Prove it. Stop repeating talking points. It is just childish.
Bush managed the country through very hard times, he did not “wreck the country”. It is the Democrats that wrecked the economy.
It is just BS. You are just repeating what you hear in the democrat controlled media.
Don’t you have any self respect? why are you letting yourself be used by some really evil people?
All this info is out there. Study it.
You post are always just ridiculous. You are just being played for a fool.
Seriously. If the Democrats have their way, the Republic is finished. It will be socialist oligarchy. It is you that will suffer.
vivo says, “Congressmen and senators were elected to see for (sic) the welfare of the population.”
Can you show me, vivo, where the Constitution says anything about providing for the “welfare of the population”?
I’ll be waiting for your response.
My new senator is Gillibrand. She has a voting record that is more sensible than many democrats. Being a newbie, I’m scared she will just lay down. Her phone is constantly busy and she doesn’t have her new email. I’ll keep trying. But, I wrote Upchuck Schumer the following:
“This is nothing but far-left wishlist pork. I always thought you would march lockstep on the road to socialism, but this is my two cents’ worth. It’s also my money, Senator.”
Everybody please contact your senators! We need to make a HUGE din!
Nothing has been passed yet, so let’s not say the sky is falling! Obviously no Republican support for a bill that sought to gain bipartisan support speaks volumes and the media has rightly jumped on this point. If for some reason, the bill passes the Senate without a single Republican House member’s support, it will do serious damage to Obama. I would imagine it’s in all of our interest to cut the excess as much as possible out of this bill and focus on public work projects and tax cuts as the backbone. The more noise we make, the better chance we have to stall something that definately won’t work, and agree on something–if it doesn’t work–that doesn’t cost nearly a trillon dollars.
Wow Mongoose, you angry herpestidae! Don’t you realize neither side has our best interest at heart? If you think Bush was “fine”, and, I assume here, represented tenets of the Republican party; you done lost it! The federal expansion incurred on Bush’s watch–with a Republican Congress–from 2001 to 2007 were unprecedented and reprehensible. We know will get excess and infringment of our liberties with the dems, but to think Bush and the repubs had your interest at heart is a wishful notion. If that defines “fine” with you… I’ll take someone lying to my face than behind my back–at least I can distinguish between the two.
Jennifer, are you stupid or what? Not a single Republican voted for the bill. Therefore, partisan. All 11 of the Democrats who voted for the bill came from conversative congressional districts. Therefore, partisan.
It seems to me the Republicans who voted against it and the 11 Democrats are more interested in pandering than what’s best for the country.
Change we can belivie in is massive Government pork.
Is McCain going to save the day for Obama and vote for cloture on this beast?
What looked like the first black Presidency is turning out to be the Presidency of Nancy Pelosi. Who’s in charge. President Obama is being played by Pelosi and he doesn’t seem to want to fight to get his Presidency back. Regardless what President Obama says to the Republicans, Pelosi is there to make sure the Republicans gets the right message. It was the Democrats who handed President Obama everything he reversed to make Bush look bad. It was President Obama who said he wasn’t going after anyone in the Bush administration and it was Pelosi who said she was. Who in charge. The GOP did the right thing in banding together and voting against the stimulus bill. President Obama needs the Republicans more then he needs the Democrats if he wants the stimulus package to work.
Obama owns this stimulus plan. Funny how the MSM is trying to cover this fact up with “partisan Republican” rhetoric! Wonder why they don’t want the country to acknowledge the fact that it’s all the Democrat & Obama’s baby now! Could it be because it’s filled with pork and is selling future generations down the river? Funny watching them tap dance around the obvious! Glad there are still some of kool-aid free people left to keep reminding them!
Pat J…Please explain how billions in sod is what’s best for the country?
This explanation is from Yuval Levin at NRO. Makes the Messiah sound bad:
When President Obama went up to Capitol Hill earlier this week to meet with Republicans, I thought to myself that it must mean his legislative affairs team has a respectable number of Republicans in the bag and they want to build on it and attribute whatever Republican votes they get to the president’s effective advocacy. That’s how the White House legislative staff tends to work, in any White House: when the team has done its job, they send the boss up to “lobby” so he can get the credit. In dealing with Congress, much like in global diplomacy, you generally don’t send the president himself on a high visibility mission that could plausibly fail completely.
But then it turned out that not a single Republican actually voted for the bill. After Obama spent a good bit of time with the Republican caucus, and then invited some key members to the White House for drinks, no one at all among the House GOP voted with him, and even a few House Democrats voted against him. That either means something happened during the day yesterday to move the more squishy Republicans to oppose the bill, or (more likely) the White House never had any votes in the bag and sent the president on a futile mission, needlessly wasting and diminishing his personal capital. Very odd.
01/29 02:46 PM
Pat J.
Your comment doesn’t make sense. Please refine your bash.
Jarhead # 54
You should not bother trying use facts or truth to argue with a liberal. The facts do not matter. The truth does not matter. Reason & logic are un-important. Emotion, Feelings & self esteem; These are the things that matter to a liberal. I believe that most liberals are only liberal because there are not any consequences for holding such flawed beliefs. Once the liberals start becomming unemployed (assuming at least some of them have jobs), loosing there health insurance, and experiencing all of the other real world joys of true liberalism, then they won’t be liberal any more. Just like the side effects of chemotherapy must be endured to rid oneself of cancer, the comming unpleasantness will have to be endured to rid ourselvs of Liberalism. I just pray that the cancer has not spread too far and the side effects of the cure are not fatal
I wonder how long it will be before “His Emptiness” says “Hey; Maybe Arnold has a good idea”; And withholds tax refunds?
Congratulations to Ms. Rubin on a superb article. Your abundant facts in proper context, and suggestion of the two possible causes of the bill – either a) the President’s lack of skill, or b) the emptiness of his prior rhetoric – certainly lead the reader to your wonderful slam-dunk: more of the same old “new politics!”
And it is the same old ideas which must be attacked at their root. Government, by its nature, cannot stimulate an economy; every “stimulus” dollar is simply looted from producers, thereby preventing them from creating real profits in their markets.
Central planning always fails because it has neither the information nor the profit motive of the billions of individual buyers and sellers in the markets.
Governments either uphold individual rights or inject statism until no rights remain. The “mixed” economy is inherently unstable.
Only tax cuts and more freedom will save us. Finally, a few Congressmen said “no” to the looting, and showed us they still have some remnants of a spine.
Ignorance reigns supreme among the true believers…
You guys realize that a third of the stimulus plan, roughly $275 billion dollars, came in the form of tax cuts, right? It’s true. Look it up.
Yep, however you slice it, every single House Republican voted against $275 billion in tax cuts that they themselves suggested.
Are you still proud of them?
ILikeIke:
And how much of that $275B will go to people who paid no taxes to begin with?
- And how much of that $275B will go to people who paid no taxes to begin with?
And… what exactly is the mad rush on all this? And why does everything have to be done all at once?
As it’s being implemented, this “plan” is literally just throwing lots of shit against the wall to see what sticks. And that’s if you give the Dems the benefit of the doubt – which no intellectually honest person could do after looking at what the bill spends money on. But pretending for a moment that the Dems really do want to rebuild the economy as opposed to simply redistributing wealth, to stretch a really bad metaphor to it’s smelly limit, throwing small pieces of shit, one at a time, will have a lot better chance of sticking (i.e., understanding which parts work and which don’t) than throwing the whole nasty turd all at once.
If it turns out there’s a significant amount of economy-stimulating tax cuts in that $275B – which is to say something OTHER THAN federal welfare check/rewards for all those Dem votes – then why not have that be a standalone bill? Pass that first. It would have all the GOP support BHO and Pelosi are whining about. Bipartisan victory for BHO! Check the effect on the economy, tweak as needed – like adding a cap. gains reduction, etc.
Also, we’ve just pumped hundreds of billion$ into the credit market. Rather than blindly moving on to the next step before carefully assessing its effect, how about we take the patient’s pulse and BP before applying the paddles again?
This gargantuan amount of money the Dems want to spend is ostensibly based on a Keynesian theory that has never been tested. Ever. It’s essentially a corollary to the economic theory we abandoned the last time the Dems, led by Carter, tried to destroy the economy and drag us into socialism. We abandoned it because Keynesian theories clearly did not work.
We have a better method now that’s been working fine for decades. Those who say that method “failed” last fall are conveniently ignoring the fact it doesn’t work when credit markets are locked up (no free market economic theory does), as they were when sub-prime, CRA and Raines’ “Riskless” chickens finally came home to roost all at once. It will begin working as soon as credit is again flowing freely – just as it has been. Conversely, there is NO evidence whatsoever supporting the notion that this trillion-dollar Keynesian crap-shoot will stimulate anything.
The markets and industry are contracting because they assume they’re about to be reamed by Democrat tax hikes and BHO’s wealth redistribution schemes. Ease those fears and you solve the problem. This decline started in 2007 after the Dems’ won Congress, resulting in corporate tax revenue declines that destroyed the trend toward the balanced budget (even before the credit “crisis”). Yes, that trend was real, and driven by tax cuts that began in 2001. Sorry, but Rush has the right approach here. And since there’s already almost $300B in tax cuts in the current bill, it would cost absolutely nothing to test his theory.
One step at a time. Or is someone worried that Americans will start looking closely at this spending spree before it’s precipitously rammed through Congress?
Saltherring, Who, pray tell, doesn’t pay taxes? Taxes are ubiquitous.
You mean, income taxes?
I’m a Democrat and I agree the House bill is a Christmas tree that has too little actual stimulus.
I’ve commented further on my blog:
http://thepurplecenter.blogspot.com/
71. Mongoose:
“You are just repeating what you hear in the democrat controlled media.”
So you want me to repeat what Limbo, Fox and Coulter have to say?
OK, here it goes: The Republicans are great, smart, pious and compassionate. They will solve all the problems in the world. Our enemies will disappear. We all will be rich. Oil will flow forever and we will breath clean air. Millions of jobs will be created. Taxes will disappear. Health care will be privatized and cheap. Everyone will go to heaven. Wow, these guys are really something!!!
72. Saltherring:
“vivo says, “Congressmen and senators were elected to see for (sic) the welfare of the population.”
Can you show me, vivo, where the Constitution says anything about providing for the “welfare of the population”?
I’ll be waiting for your response.”
Holy moly! I don’t know what else they would be elected for. To kill the population? To have fun passing laws that just mess things up? To earn a salary? To make speeches?
I don’t think I would expect a response.
#91 Vivo….Please provide documentation of the words you have attributed to Limbaugh, Fox and Coulter. You must have pulled it out of your narrow-minded-liberal arse once again. Typical.
Vivo’s sophomoric natterings are sadly typical. Another of the Left’s useful idiots speaks. It’s one thing to be thought an idiot; it’s another thing to speak and remove all doubt.
Segue to copy Tex Taylor’s comments from another article.
Ted Taylor: “I am developing a case of ODDDS (Obama Dumbing Deviancy Downward Syndrome).
When I see a man who can convince a majority of the American public a 1.2 trillion (interest accrued) subsidization of buying votes an economic stimulus, I get ODDDS.
When I see what I originally presumed to be reasonably intelligent folks faint, cry, pee in their pants, or shake uncontrollably at another Obama speech, where he has dynamically said nothing, I get a raging case of ODDDS.
When I see a majority of Americans vote for a man they think honest and forthright, who has been surrounded his entire life by anarchists, terrorists, blatant racists, American haters including his feckless wife, felons, and corrupt politicians, you guessed it…ODDDS takes hold.”
No one says it better than Tex.
76 seems to be stuck on the reality that Democrats joined all the Republicans in kicking this trillion dollar spending spree to the curb.
What makes the bill partisan is how it was handled. All written in Nancy Pelosi’s office and her minions.
No bi-partisan discussion or input at all.
But some say black is white and giving billions to ACORN for fraud and hundreds of billions in other reckless spending is something other than pandering.
Pathetic.
82. Retep:
Pat J.
Your comment doesn’t make sense. Please refine your bash.
——————————————————–
Really? It seems to me the Republicans just want to carry over the same old Bush policies into the current administration. Um, hello? Those policies got us into this mess. But they’d rather keep carrying the water in a partisan ideologically-blind manner rather than do what’s best for the country.
80. ThinkingPerson:
Pat J…Please explain how billions in sod is what’s best for the country?
——————————-
Sure TP. But first explain what the hell you mean by “sod.”
93. ThinkingPerson:
#91 Vivo….Please provide documentation of the words you have attributed to Limbaugh, Fox and Coulter. You must have pulled it out of your narrow-minded-liberal arse once again. Typical.
—-
Oo. Oo. Let me. Let me.
From the Hannity (Fox) Program on 1/22/09:
“George Bush had a reverence for the office of the presidency. That’s why he didn’t get partisan. It would have been “irreverent” to turn the Oval Office partisan.” – Rush Limpballs
And from the Neil Cavuto show (also Fox) on 12/12/08:
Coulter: Oh, third point. I just want to mention — Liberals, hysterical with me throughout the campaign for calling him B. Hussein Obama, we found out yesterday, that’s what he likes to be called.
Cavuto: What are you saying in this –
Coulter: He’s changed his — now that he’s president –
Cavuto: Yeah, but when he’s inaugurated — remember it was a thing with Jimmy Carter, you know, whether they were gonna call him James Earl Carter –
Coulter: Yeah, but as president, he wants to be known as Barack – Hussein – Obama.
Cavuto: How do you know that?
Coulter: He announced it yesterday!
Cavuto: Where did he announce it?
Coulter: [pause] I don’t know! Wherever he announces things! Where does he announce anything?
This has to be a joke. Otherwise we’re in bigger trouble than I thought.
Pat J…Please explain how billions in sod is what’s best for the country?
——————————-
Sure TP. But first explain what the hell you mean by “sod.”
97. Retep:
This has to be a joke. Otherwise we’re in bigger trouble than I thought.
Pat J…Please explain how billions in sod is what’s best for the country?
——————————-
Sure TP. But first explain what the hell you mean by “sod.”
———————-
By any chance are either of you reffering to the $200 million (with an ‘m’) that might go to upgrade the National Mall? I would think that might even create a few additonal jobs, wouldn’t you?
Pat J.
Yeah you sold me. If $200 million creates a few additional jobs, I say go for it. But why stop there?
Let’s make it a trillion. Oh wait we already have.
#92 Vivo responds to my posting, # 72, with: “Holy moly! I don’t know what else they would be elected for. To kill the population? To have fun passing laws that just mess things up? To earn a salary? To make speeches?
“I don’t think I would expect a response.”
How about protecting our borders and defending us from foreign enemies? Or granting us the liberty to prosper and succeed by our own means, with only minimal government regulation or interference? Or prosecuting and imprisoning criminals who prey on honest citizens? All these aspects of the Constitution (and more) act to “PROVIDE for the common defense” and “PROMOTE the general welfare”. Nothing was written about PROVIDING for the general welfare. You’ll have to look for those in the Communist Manifesto..
100. Saltherring:
You’re not human. No wonder you think this way. You don’t need a constitution to know why people elect officials. How’s life in Mars?
#100 Saltherring:
What a brillant response, demonstrating your ability to refute arguiments with hard evidence and data carefully balanced with insightful analysis. Obviously your response demonstrated a deep understanding of the Constitution and the rules that govern the nation.
What an intellect! What an education.
But I digress because of your impress knowledge. Obamie’s plan calls for over a trillion dollars in spending that is neither funded nor needed. But hey, a 100+% increase in spending for non mandatory programs in one year is nothing to sneeze at after the drunken sailor spending of the Bushies.
So now we get to see what its like to elect a drug addled party to power. How large is this proposal. More than 150% of all military and securiy expenditures including the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not bad. But since Schumer says the real cost will be three trillion we are talking about stealing from future generations to pay for this. Again I say great I am tired of being robbed to pay for my grandparents and I think its great your grandkiddies will pay for these bills.
And since this money must come out of the private sector who can doubt that every dollar the government spends is more wisely spent and infinitely more productive than each dollar an individual spends.
Ergo if Obama’s plan will send us to utopia why not just institute a socialist people’s republic, I mean wouldn’t government spending just bbe so perfect?
Well not unless you believe the Big Dig was a success-or 18 billion for three miles of road? But then again a great number of Dhimmies connected consdtruction firms got very rich and this is what Obammie’s stimulus is about.
That’s how Clinton, a man who never earned more than 35,000 prior to being elected president managed to earn over 500 million in the past 8 years. But hey he’s really, really an inspirational speaker. The Saudis, Chinese, Nigerians, Columbians, Venezuelians, and Gulf States just can’t get enough of him.
So lets hire someone to dig a hole and someone else to fill it. By the way I shorted the market and made a tidy sum and am shorting the financial sector and making more. No doubt by 2012 I’ll be so rich I can pull an act like the new Sec of Treasury. Maybe I’ll run as a dhimmierat just to insure my great grandchildren live like kings off the incomes of little people. Its the dhimmierat way!
“There’s $1 billion for Amtrak” – I like Amtrak.
“$2 billion for child-care subsidies” – might make it easier for single moms to go to work.
“$50 million for . . . the National Endowment for the Arts” – I like art.
“There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.” – We liberals all have flat screens already, so I think that’s aimed at y’all.
In case you missed it, we just spent a trillion dollars “liberating 50 million people” who hate our guts and can’t wait for us to leave.
How would you feel if there were $20 billion for free guns? Or how about $200 billion for bass boats? $150 million for copies of Who’s Nailin Palin? Bet you’d all think that was just dandy.
103. sambo hux:
Like your humor . . .
Obama’s picking out individual characters to assassinate. He’s pissed because the cash he’s throwing out that makes it to conservatives, will not get back to him or the party.
Putting this pathetic individual into the White House is going to leave a helluva lot of trash to clean up for the next President. And his fools army will jump in the volcano for him.
Cbergeezer:
You’re absolutely right. Obama’s pissed because some of the money is going to conservatives. The Republicans made it quite clear they don’t want anything to do with this stimulus package. And I applaud their unanimous vote against this socialist time bomb. Even better, I commend their standing up and refusing to accept any of the money in their own districts. That takes real balls. That’s how we know a politician’s true colors . . . when they stand up for what’s right and defend their conservative principles even when it’s not popular to do so. God bless em . . . Oh, wait . . . the Republicans haven’t refused the money? Oh, never mind.
Thomas Jackson: If that’s your REAL name.
You say, “Well not unless you believe the Big Dig was a success-or 18 billion for three miles of road? But then again a great number of Dhimmies connected consdtruction firms got very rich and this is what Obammie’s stimulus is about.”
What happened there? With that big hole in the ground? I mean, it’s just a tunnel. Who could screw that up so badly? Who was governor then? Shouldn’t he/she have done something? I mean, I know he’s not down there with a shovel or anything, but in the end he/she is responsible, right? Or like that other thing I heard about, something about a road to the bridge to nowhere. Who’s doing these silly things. Golly wonkers anyway, I just wish we could all do what’s right and also think about the children also and progress this nation forward in so much as it’s good, sure it is, a great nation this country we call America, but can be better also and so I’m hoping, oh and job creation, that we can all do that along those lines. Hopefully, someone on this board knows. Maybe we’ll be able to avoid a similar disaster in the future. Thanks for your help.
107. s-ux:
Good luck in your high school liberal journalism class.
Cyber Wheezer:
So you DON’T know the answer to the “who’s responsible” question? Not to worry. I’m sure somebody else here has the guts to call a spade a spade.
And I really like the way you truncated my name to read s-ux. I can hear Beavis and Butthead now . . . “He said sucks . . . heh-heh . . . ah-heh-heh-heh.” Oh to reach one day such an evolved state. I dare to dream. is that OK? If I dream . . . of maturity and self-righteousness and airport bathrooms and being electrocuted in a Halliburton shower? Can that be right? Did that really happen?
109. sambo hux:
Cyber Wheezer: Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.
Just too creative; You have to stay creative if your Dumocrat. Reality doesn’t work for you.
Hmmmm, interesting items in this “Stimulus Bill”
Y’know what it looks like to me?
It appears as though the Democrats’ core constituencies aren’t as sanguine about their chances in ’10 or ’12 as they publicly say, so they want their payoff right now.
“Money up front, if you please”.
This has the stink of the Weimar economy, when workers would get paid by the hour and throw their bundles of depreciating marks out the factory windows to their wives, who would dump it into wheelbarrows and hustle off to buy bread or ANYTHING of value before the currency devalued below the price of the staple necessities.
Does it not?
We do something of this nature in the unionized maritime world, it’s called:
“Hit ‘em and Run”
All you need is a mediocre imagination, a passing knowledge of the contract, and your “Overtime Pencil”.
All I can say is….THANK YOU GOD FOR THE REPUBLICANS. Obama’s approval rating has gone from the 80′s to the 50′s in just two weeks in office. He should take notice of these numbers and realize that the American people do not want this porkulous package that he is trying to shove down their throats. This is nothing but a wishlist of the democrats for every single appropriations project that was denied or they were afraid to ask for because they knew it would be turned away. For Pete’s sake, millions going to illegal aliens, millions going to condoms, hybrid cars for washington, millions going to the institution for the arts, etc. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen and if Obama has any cahonies at all he will stand up to President Pelosi and Reid and say “NO” before it is too late. This is exactly what the republican party was trying to tell all the Obama supporters during the elections, but no one would listen. Now maybe they will pay attention when their taxes go up, their children are paying for this mess and the biggest economic disaster ever will unfoil within the next year because of this “we have to rush” economic recovery (hhahahahaha)bill. PUT REPUBLICANS BACK IN CHARGE IN 2010 AND 2012 and they will fix the economy that democrats are going to ruin completely.
Jessica #25. You don’t seem to realize that only 350 million of that TARP money went to the greedy bigwigs at Wallstreet and the such. Obama has the other 350 billion, this is factual. Henry Paulson (democrat) is one of those greedy criminals from Goldman Sachs who needed a job after his term with Bush and made this entire scandal up so his cronies would get some money. The onl crisis that we need to deal with is the housing crisis. Thanks to Carter, Clinton and Barney Frank we have the subprime mortgage crisis that is at the core of this economic crisis. If that is fixed then the mainstream public will fix the rest of their problmes without Obama and his band of thieves trying to take all our money and our children and grandchildrens money to pay out to the unions and their lackies so they can get re-elected in 2010 and 2012. Open your eyes please and see what everyone else is seeing. Quit drinking the Obama koolaid.
Some of these items which the House Republicans are calling wasteful make economic sense, such as the funds for hybrid vehicles for public employees– as long as they’re manufactured in this country. That would put government workers in more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly cars while helping to stimulate jobs in the auto industry. Two birds. But most of the things on the list are cosmetic improvements on government facilities and local projects, which would do absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy. Very disappointing. I think it’s important for gloating democrats, such as myself, to be open to the idea that some of these expenditures are not all that helpful and some are downright idiotic. I’m getting the distinct and rather unsettling feeling that the Speaker of House has become far too big for her knickers. She’s making the White House look bad, and contributing to a very contentious atmosphere in Congress.
Republican did not work! Everything got worse when they where in charge. WHy on earth would we listen to anything they say now? WHere where all these ideas then? Oh yeah they where pconcentration on leing to us about how the economy was doing so well. Republicans lie. THey lied about the economy, they lied about Iraq and they are lieing again now, nothing has changed. You want to get thier support, just tell them this money will be spent rebuilding Iraq and they never complain about that. Spend our taxes on our country and that’s just pork? You people have no credability left, zero nahda, zip.
Redefining the word stupid:
“I havn’t beem this proud of the Republican Party since Sarah Palin was picked as the VP nominee.”
That should convince anyone with a working brain.
Most of what is written here shows gross ignorance. None of you are privy to the fact of the document. For example, Screening for HIV AIDS and STD (Sexually transmitted disease) will reduce health care costs because it is a PREVENTATIVE measure. I guess most republicans would rather fix when the costs would be higher than prevent, before the worst happens. Obama is the best thing that has happened to the USA in years, so stop looking at the ground, look up and see the skies, and instead of writing gibberish, help your fellow human beings. The world loves and continue to love Mr. Obama. Why – becasue he is optimistic in the face of adversity. Name calling is not going to phase him because he has been called many negative names in his life and he still rises to the top. Many on this blog could learn from the man he is. All the best folks – if you choose not to follow that fool Limbaugh. He is nothing but a joker, full of ignorance.
jazz58: Get a grip Jazz 58. The economy was ruined before President Obama and his admin took over. Where were you for the past ten years – asleep at the wheel? Members of the public are not fools, or they could be fools if they think that all the crap that Mr. Obama has to take over can be cleared up in a day. Rome was not built in a day and neither is the current poor economy. Also, in case bloggers are not taking any interest in the world, this is a GLOBAL crisis not just a US economic situation. I thought you guys/gals were education. In this case, I hope Mr. Obama will not allow the republicans to take away from education resources, because it is sorely needed. There should also be some funds for adult education and many on this blog should be forced to attend some literacy classes before they receive a tax refund.
The comments criticizing the bill show a tremendous amount of ignorance. News flash: There is no quick fix, no instant gratification and no fat check coming your way. The bill is supposed to create and save jobs. Besides, it is not yet finished. This is the middle game here folks. Wait for the finished product and please read the bill and try to understand that this is for the working people. I didn’t hear this much objection to Bush giving $750 billion with no strings attached to Wall St. It amazes me that poor and middleclass Republicans always vote against their own interest.
M.Taylor– I think many of the programs on the list would have long-term benefits to the economy, but the salient point is that the economy is in crisis and the point of any stimulus package is to generate immediate stimulation. Get the country back on its feet, then start making the long-term improvements, which most of us want.
You fools against Limbaugh and with the “stimulate” bill show your immaturity in your comments.
You shall be victims with the rest of us, even if you deny the cause.
It’s now crystal clear: the GOP will happily destroy the US economy….just to tarnish President Obama.
They are lying & spinning. They have taken an Obstructionist Stance that will harm every working American. Why are some of you cheering them on?
Each spending allocation in the current stimulus package is linked to current or new American Jobs.
Don’t believe me?
- Just ask the workers at the Church & Dwight Company. They make the condoms that could have been purchased with the now notorious STD prevention funding.
-Just ask the construction workers who could have gotten jobs building or repairing; Smithsonian museum facilities,Department of Homeland Security headquarters, CDC buildings,
State Department training facilities, etc.
-Ask the Computer salesman, retailers & Technicians who could have been paid from the computer purchases & upgrades in the stimulus Bill.
-Ask the College students you know if they’d like to earn $13.oo per hour as a temp/part-time Census employee. The $1 billion for the 2010 Census could make that possible.
Here in Ohio, we need jobs..any jobs..period. This Spending Bill creates them….even if the projects sound oddball. The odd diversity of the projects will actually ensure job creation in multiple job categories & skill sets. It’s a good thing.
The next time you see a member of the GOP trashing a specific part of this package…ask yourself this, “how many jobs are attached to that at odd spending item?”
You will get a number greater than one and that’s a good thing…unless you’re a Republican.
One more thing….
TO: (post 88)goy who said..
“- And how much of that $275B will go to people who paid no taxes to begin with?
And… what exactly is the mad rush on all this? And why does everything have to be done all at once?”
#1-That is a GOP talking point soaked in ignorance.
I didn’t have to pay income taxes last year…because my income came from my Military Disability benefits. You see, I sustained a near fatal Brain Injury in combat…I suffered that injury for YOU.
So..because of YOU, I’m struggling to survive financially and yes, I may go into Foreclosure.
Since I’m home-bound I decided to pay my heating/electric bill this month instead of the mortgage. My monthly Military Disability(aka: Welfare Queen-ish check to you) is less than 1/4th of my prior income. I’m sinking and could use that stimulus lifeline that you’d deny me.
It’s touching to know that one of the people I sacrificed for would have me freeze to death or living in a homeless shelter. Maybe it’s selfish people like you who shouldn’t get that whopping $600.00 stimulus check. Maybe yours should donated & sent directly to your county Veterans Service Commission.
Your attempt to stereotype “people who didn’t pay taxes” is ugly and insulting to Disabled Veterans, older Americans on SSI/SSA & the working poor. You’re helping to ensure GOP defeat in 2010 every time you parrot those words.
More & more Americans are waking up and realizing that the Grand old Party is the party of self-centered jerks. Users & abusers.
oh..and ps…
You’re Welcome. Enjoy the freedoms my brothers, sisters & I have given you. (we’ll try not to be such non-tax paying burdens)
So much for change!
I don’t consider myself an intellect but I am one of the millions of overtaxed hard working proud to be an american citizens. We are the millions that do not usually complain and I do not think that our government realises how powerful we are. The Pelosi’s and Franks and Dashels and Dodds that think of themselves as the elite groups have succeeded in doing at least one good thing with their STIMULIS PACKAGE
that is they have awakened a sleeping tiger.
We do not ask for much but we do ask for honesty. Maybe it is time for real change maybe it is time to stop complaining and put honest hard working people that understand what its like to put two children through college or try to get ten years out of a vehicle.I for one have had it with this government and if we continue down this road,I fear there will be real change one way or another.
DEAR PRES OBAMA, VP BIDEN AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE;
.
YOU WILL PROBABLY NEVER SEE THIS, READ IT, CONSIDER IT OR USE IT BUT HERE GOES. I AM A WHITE MALE, REGISTERED INDEPENDENT,62 YR OLD RETIRED TEAMSTER FROM AIRBORNE EXPRESS WHICH WAS BOUGHT OUT BY A GERMAN CO DHL, WHICH NOW HAS CLOSED DOWN ITS DOMESTIC OPERATIONS ANND CENTRAL DISTRIBUTION HUB/AIRPORT LAYING OFF 9,000 WORKERS ACROSS AMERICA AND DESTROYING AMERICAN TOWN, WILMINGTON, OH.
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TAX CUTS ARE FINE BUT EITHER DONT WORK OR DOESNT PUT MONEY IN OUR POCKETS TO SPEND AND STIMULATE THE ECONOMY FROM THE BOTTOM UP. “TRICKLE DOWN THEORY” EITHER DIDNT WORK OR WASNT FAST ENOUGH!.
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THANKS TO THE LAWYERS IN CONGRESS THE STIUMULUS PACKAGE 2009 POSTED ON LINE IS HARD TO UNDERSTAND. PLEASE SIMPLIFY IT AND GO ON PRIME TV AND EXPLAIN TO US LINE BY LINE EXACTLY HOW EVERY ONE OF OUR DOLLARS IS TO BE SPENT, WHAT KIND OF JOBS WILL BE CREATED AND WHERE THEY WILL BE!
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BESIDES THE ABOVE I PROPOSE: “TRICKLE UP THEORY”
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1. GIVE EACH LEGAL U.S. ADULT CITIZEN $1MIL (AFTER ALL ITS OUR MONEY). EACH OF US MUST SIGN A LEGAL CONTRACTBETWEEN US AND THE GOVT AGREEING TO THE FOLLOWING STIPULATIONS OR FORFEIT THE MONEY WIHTIN 2 YEARS!
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2. MUST BE SPENT ON:
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A. EITHER RECLAIMING OUR FORECLOSED PRIMARY RESIDENCE OR PURCHHASING A PRIMARY RESIDENCE (NO VACATION HOMES OR INVESTMENT HOMES OR BUSINESS PROPERTIES).
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B. MUST BE SPENT ON: IMPROVING PRIMARY RESIDENCES IE; ENERGY EFFICIENT INSULATION, WINDOWS, DOORS ROOFS, SOLAR PANELS ETC.
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C. MUST BE SPENT ON: PAYING OFF ALL FORMS OF MORTGAGES, LOANS, ETC. SETTING UP FULL COLLEGE FOR CHILDREN AND HEALTH CARE FUNDS FOR EACH IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER!
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D. MUST BE SPENT ON: ENERGY EFFICIENT U.S. MADE APPLIANCES, CARS, TRUCKS ETC!
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IN CLOSING, YOU MUST GIVE US BACK OUR MONEY. STOP THE WHINING AND BICKERING IN CONGRESS! GIVE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS/CITIZENS OUR OWN MONEY BACK AND LET US BUY BACK OUR HOUSES AND INFUSE THE ECONOMY WHICH WILL CREATE THE JOBS AND INFUSE THE TAX BASES! TRUST US LIKE WE TRUSTED YOU WHEN WE VOTED YOU IN TO REPRESENT US!
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I WOULD HAVE SENT THIS DIRECT TO WHITEHOUSE.GOV OR STRONGMIDDLECLASS.GOV BUT THEY ONLY ALLOW 500 CHARACTERS/LETTERS AND NOT WORDS AND THATS NOT NEARLY ENOUGH FOR THIS!
@123. Will of Ohio: - That is a GOP talking point soaked in ignorance.
Nope. It’s taken directly from the tax tables you’d be familiar with if you had the slightest clue what you’re talking about.
- I didn’t have to pay income taxes last year…because my income came from my Military Disability benefits.
Clearly we are not talking about people in your very exceptional situation here. My condolences for the injuries that you sustained due to your own choices. They don’t justify special pleading.
- You’re Welcome.
So are you. I was a veteran, it seems, long before you were.
well, its like this women have run this country for a long time. look it up behind every success man there is a women .
and how do they get successful we help them.
so if werent for us women what would you men do. other then sit on the couch and watch t.v.